A black man from Houston filmed a heartwarming short video of his 5-year old daughter, Simone, in the #BlackLivesMatter protest on 2nd June in which she is seen crying with fear and fright as a battalion of cops patrols the area.
Simone, the young girl, asks the cops ‘Are you going to shoot us?’
Witnessing a history of brutality and recent violent conflicts involving both rubber bullets and tear gas, the young girl got frightened seeing the cops assuming they will do the same to her. As an officer found her crying, he approached and hugged her to comfort and tranquilize her.
In the video, the white officer is seen trying to calm her by offering a couple of nice words as he assured her she can protest or she can party or whatever she wants but all he asks for is not breaking anything upon which the girl nodded in yes.
The girl’s father Simeon Bartee, who is 29-years old, was attending the protest in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, by the hands of a white cop, appreciated the cop’s kind gesture. He said the man’s good deed has given him and his wife a new perspective as he has a very negative image of the entire police institution.
Simeon Bartee’s brother Jerome Bartee was also brutally beaten up by five cops in 2016 and Simeon has an on-going civil case against Harris County Jail. The officers broke his nose and smashed his shoulder bone around his eyes. He had to undergo reconstructive surgery because of the injuries.
The kind cop later told Simeon that he has a young daughter too and he wants to make it home for Bartee’s daughter as well. The Bartee family says they have got a new perspective and it has given them some hope. The protest, however, was against the entire police institution.